American vaudeville as ritual / Albert F. McLean, Jr.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McLean, Albert F., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Vaudeville--United States.

Vaudeville.

Popular culture--United States.

Popular culture.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (288 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Lexington, Kentucky : University Press of Kentucky, 1965.

Language Note:

English

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Summary:

This study affords an entirely new view of the nature of modern popular entertainment. American vaudeville is here regarded as the carefully elaborated ritual serving the different and paradoxical myth of the new urban folk. It demonstrates that the compulsive myth-making faculty in man is not limited to primitive ethnic groups or to serious art, that vaudeville cannot be dismissed as meaningless and irrelevant simply because it fits neither the criteria of formal criticism or the familiar patterns of anthropological study. Using the methods for criticism developed by Susanne K. Langer and other

Contents:

Cover; Title; Copyright; Preface; Contents; One: The Symbolism of Vaudeville; Two: Evolution of a Ritual; Three: The New Folk and Their Heroes; Four: From Sin to Sociology; Five: The Mechanics of Fantasy; Six: The New Humor; Seven: A Modern Totemism and Sorcery; Eight: The Playlets; Nine: The Palaces; Ten: The Patterns of Ritual Meaning; Notes; A Note on the Sources; Index; A; B; C; D; E; F; G; H; I; J; K; L; M; N; O; P; R; S; T; U; V; W; Y

Notes:

Includes index.

Bibliographical references included in "Notes" (p. 223-238)

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780813184791

0813184797

9780813150741

0813150744

OCLC:

647135838